Bug 78390

Update!

Firstly, the Samba server Does still run when the computer freezes (totally
cool), but it runs pretty slowly.

A huge amount of my trouble stemmed from a screensaver of all things!  Kumppa
would run for half a second and then freeze.

The first kernel (the -14) did have the freezing problem with Nautilus, just
like the patch said, and the patch almost completely eliminated that problem. 
(Overall, I have had a lot of freezes!  About 45% were in Nautilus, about 45%
were in the screen saver, about 5% were during file installations, and about 5%
were just from clicking something on the desktop.  Fortunately, just about
everything is fixed.  Thanks for the updates.  You're much speedier than MS.)

I'd like a fix for Kumppa, since I usually have the screen saver randomize. 
Otherwise, I'll try to figure out how to remove it.  I'm still learning this system.

(I hope I picked the right radio button of Modified.)

It turns out that my "fix" was only temporary and the lockups simply got more
and more frequent.  I tried removing all services, changing settings, etc.  It
turned out that it was either my ATI Xpert 2000 or the drivers that come with
RH8.  I've found other bugs on Bugzilla (I can't get the search to work anymore,
so I don't have any numbers for you).  One of the bugs received the response
that all (or just about all) ATI cards were tested to work flawlessly with RH. 
This opens up the possibilities that the cards have a unique way of
malfunctioning that only effects Red Hat Linux drivers or that the problem is
the video card in combination with some other piece of hardware.

Here's what I found, though.  Bare and updated installations had this problem,
as well as alternate ATI drivers (which may very well be the same driver).  On
my system (Red Hat 8.0, Athlon T-Bird 1.2, 512MB RAM, 80GB, SB Live Value,
D-Link Network card, Verbatim 48x24x50x CD-R, and Jetway 867 motherboard),
running Kumppa always causes lockup.  On my little brother's system (Red Hat
8.0, Athlon Duron 800, 256MB RAM, 10GB, Turtle Beach Tropez+, Linksys Network
card, Actima DVD-ROM, and Abit KT7A), it would pause when the GL/Mesa (whatever)
drivers are NOT loaded (such as when I switch video cards), but it would lock
when the drivers are loaded (I reinstalled RH8).  (I anticipate the same result
from my computer if I play with the drivers, but it's an enormous hassle to do so.)

Hardwarewise, in my system, I've eliminated the SB Live and CD-R.  I'm almost
certain it's either drivers or the video card, and I'm leaning towards drivers,
since the card runs almost flawlessly in Winblows 98.  I must say, though, that
while using 98 I did have a few unexplained lockups, but I think that they're
most likely from old RAM I was using, since RH didn't lock up...just Gnome.

After installing a TNT2 M64 (drivers were a chore), my system works perfectly.

And yes, my 11 yr old sister and 12 yr old brother use Red Hat Linux to do
everything they used to do with Windoze, and more, and they're not even computer
savvy.  In fact, my little brother installed his himself.  We don't have any
dual boot systems here.  ;-)  Nice job, Red Hat!  (Now if we could just make
configuration GUIs for everything so that the wonderful command line doesn't
need to be learned by everyone, I'd be in total bliss, but unfortunately then I
wouldn't have much need to buy any Red Hat literature or take any classes.)

I changed severity to high, since lockups result in loss of data in applications
and changed component to glxMesa, since that's the closest thing I can figure
out.  A possible workaround is to change to another video card, install RH, and
switch to the ATI card.  It's probably pretty easy to remove the glx, but when I
tried I got reboots instead of lockups.

If you need me to do anything extra or would like me to send them the video
card, let me know.

Changing bug state to assigned, this bug isn't ready for QA verification.